The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn’s Karaban is a ‘WARRIOR’
NO. 1 UCONN AT ST. JOHN’S at Madison Square Garden Saturday, noon (FOX)
STORRS — Alex Karaban knows how to make a sellout home crowd explode with a big 3-pointer.
He also knows how to make such a crowd go silent.
Witness Wednesday night at Gampel Pavilion, when Karaban drove in for a transition layup, then landed awkwardly and lay crumpled on the floor in pain near the basket stanchion, the BlueOut crowd suddenly turned silent.
Karaban winced in obvious pain from a badly sprained ankle as trainer James Doran ran out on the floor. He slowly got up, eliciting a cheer from the crowd, but that quickly faded as well as he limped off the court with Doran.
“It hurts a lot,” Karaban told coach Dan Hurley on the way to the locker room. “I’m going to need to get taped pretty significantly, but I should be back by the next media (timeout).”
Karaban didn’t quite make it back for that, but not too long after the 6-foot-8, UConn men’s basketball sophomore forward made the crowd cheer wildly again as he exited the locker room and returned to the bench.
“I heard the crowd cheering and that felt good,” Hurley recalled, “because I knew at least somebody was back.”
About a minute later, Karaban checked back in with UConn trailing 21-20. About a minute after that, Karaban rejected a Jayden Pierre shot. Then, on the other end of the floor, he knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Huskies their first lead since it was 6-4.
Karaban wound up gutting out 34 minutes in the Huskies 74-65 victory, scoring 12 points, grabbing four rebounds and providing inspiration to his teammates once again.
“It was great to see him back on the court hooping with us,” said freshman Stephon Castle, the star of the night with a career-best 20 points. “And his production didn’t drop off at all.”
After the game, Hurley reported that Karaban’s ankle was “pretty swollen,” and that he was slated to have X-rays on Thursday.
“He was compromised, he couldn’t really move,” Hurley noted. “He was probably at 70% ... But, he’s the toughest guy, man. And a real gamer. Just his presence helped us with floor-spacing and problem-solving.”
Whatever news Karaban receives on his ankle, he got some good news on Thursday afternoon. Karaban was named to the 10-man watch list for the Karl Malone Award, given annually to the top power forward in men’s college basketball.
Alex Karaban delivers. He also may be as emblematic as any player in the Big East on how tough the league is. While Karaban’s swollen ankle on Wednesday night was a good example, the better example were the 10 “Frankenstein stitches” over his right eye after a battle with Xavier three weeks earlier in Cincinnati.
About midway through the second half of that contest, Karaban took an elbow to the
face. Or at least that’s what appeared to happen.
“I got an explanation that (the refs were) not sure why his eye started bleeding,” Hurley reported after that game. “Maybe it was like wrestling back in the day when they’d cut themselves with a razor, Dusty Rhodes or some (garbage).”
Either way, Karaban was bleeding profusely and had to retreat to the locker room to get stitched up. But just like against Providence, Karaban was back later in the game, helping the Huskies close out an 80-75 win and finishing with 14 points.
It’s been a pretty good run for Karaban since he arrived in Storrs in January, 2022, sitting out the second half of the season as a redshirt. He was a key piece to last season’s NCAA Tournament title run, turning buzzerbeating 3-pointers into an art form, shooting 42.1% from distance and averaging 9.4 points while starting all but one of the Huskies’ 35 games as a redshirt freshman.
Karaban is averaging 14.5 points per game this season, shooting 39.3% from 3 and leading the team in toughing out mid-game injuries.
“Everything changed when Karaban came in here for us,” Hurley noted. “Not too many players in the first year-and-ahalf of their career have won as much as him. He’s a special player. Just the will to stay in that game, limp around and help us win the game ...
“He looks like the boy next door,’ Hurley added, “but the guy is an incredible competitor and warrior.”